


A Safe Space

by Carmillized



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Light Angst, Maybe eventually smut?, Mostly fluff and very gay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-22
Updated: 2017-03-28
Packaged: 2018-10-09 05:05:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10404555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carmillized/pseuds/Carmillized
Summary: Lena finds herself at Kara's apartment when she doesn't feel safe in her own home. From there on out, it'll just be them against the world.





	1. The Sound of Her Heels

**Author's Note:**

> Russian translation done by Julia_Sh, and available here: ficbook.net/readfic/5368674

Mon-el’s otherworldly patience wore thin very easily. He just couldn’t understand why Kara was so hung up on being fired, he couldn’t stand not being able to quickly turn her mood around and after about half an hour of excruciatingly bad jokes and blank smiles, he sighed and quietly left her apartment.  
  
Kara sat at her table, staring at the box full of picture frames and pads of paper and sharp no.2 pencils. The faces of her friends and family leered at her from behind the glass, so she moved some papers in front of them and pushed the box to the other side of the table. She slid her glasses off her face and rubbed her eyes; finally giving up the battle that she had been fighting since she saw Snapper earlier, and breathed heavily as hot tears carved streams down her cheeks. Her sensitive ears picked up the sound of the un-oiled hinges on the door downstairs as he left the building. She was glad he left, he was just another wall that she didn’t have the strength to climb that night.  
  
Kara sat and listened to everything she could hear, murmurings of conversations she tried hard not to eaves-drop on from the neighboring apartments, faucets and cupboards and shuffling footsteps, she could hear birds landing on the roof above over the roar of a light breeze of wind, and she could identify the movie the couple below her were watching. The room would be completely silent to anyone else, but it was almost overwhelming to Kara, almost too much.  
  
Then she heard it again. She picked up on the creaky hinges downstairs again, which wouldn’t usually draw too much attention but the person who walked in was wearing high heels, and the only woman in the building who wears them regularly wasn’t supposed to be home till the next week. She tracked the movements of the woman by sound alone, and she knew exactly who it was before she was halfway up the stairs.  
  
Kara quickly swiped at her cheeks, sniffled back her running nose and smoothed her hair back towards the ponytail it was supposed to be in, and then she used her x-ray vision like a peephole and waited. Every step echoed lightly through the plain white brick hallways and the woman was getting so close that she could hear the swish of her pant legs with each of her steps.  
  
Then she was there. Kara watched her come to stand just outside her door. The woman lifted her hand to knock with a couple of knuckles, and hesitated. She froze with her arm in the air, and held her breath. Kara waited for her to move, to exhale, to knock, speak – something, and just when Kara was sure she had turned to stone, her knuckles finally made contact.  
  
It was the lightest knock she had ever heard, but still a knock. She stood up and got most of the way to the door before she remembered her glasses and scrambled back to shove them onto her face, then ran to the door and pulled it open.  
  
“Lena!” It was the first time she had smiled in two days. A real smile. Small but genuine, it reached her eyes and flashed a sliver of her perfectly white teeth.  
  
“Kara,” She said breathily. She smiled as well, but there was fear in the back of her eyes, she was clearly upset. “I didn’t know where else to go, my mom – I, I heard you got fired I’m so sorry.” Lena saw the box over Kara’s shoulder and her puffy eyes that weren’t so easily swiped clear, “I am so sorry, how are you holding up?”  
  
Kara grabbed Lena’s hand and tugged over the threshold and closed the door behind her. “I’m, well,” the famous Kara Crinkle appeared between her eyebrows when she caught sight of the box again, “I’m okay all things considered.” She huffed and blew a loose strand of hair out of her face, she took the jacket out of her hands and placed it next to her own on the hooks on her wall. “Things could definitively be worse, my mom could be hunting me down like it was Kara season.” She gave Lena a pointed look as the both collapsed onto the couch.  
  
Lena’s lips pulled back in a tight, bitter smile, and her eyes dipped and looked out the window. “They know where I live Kara… They had no reservations about helping me over the banister yesterday, what’s to say they won’t try again?” She got quieter, whispering like she was sharing a secret, “I haven’t slept a wink since then, I sat up all night with my taser just waiting for one of them to come around the corner or through my window.” She pulled her knees up to her chest and picked at a loose thread on her pants.  
  
Kara pulled one of her hands into her own and steered Lena’s chin with the other so that their eyes met. “Hey, hey listen, I’ll protect you. Me and Supergirl have your back, okay? So, stay here as long as you need to, and even longer if you want.” She squeezed her hand tightly twice, and moved her other hand to her shoulder, and then down her arm and into her other hand.  
  
Lena sighed and closed her eyes, nodding minutely. They sat in comfortable silence together for a long while, Kara was sure Lena was going to fall asleep upright, but then – “Can I ask you a question?”  
  
“Anything.”  
  
Lena reached towards Kara’s face and the blonde’s breath hitched and eyes fluttered, her heart beat quickly sped up to match the rate of her thoughts. With her index fingers and thumbs she gently slid off her glasses, and before Kara could protest, Lena had already pushed them up her own nose.  
  
“I knew it,” Kara’s crinkle came back and she tilted her head like a puppy, trying to understand what it is exactly that Lena knew. “I knew Kara Danvers wasn’t astigmatic,” Lena smiled shyly and pulled them off again. “Though they sure are heavy, are they lined with lead?”  
  
“I don’t – how did you find out? I was going to tell you – soon, I was going to tell you soon,” she stammered and Lena waited until she was done fussing over her thin disguise.  
  
“Well, to be completely honest, I didn’t think it was possible for two people to believe in me at the same time.” Another bitter smile, but warmer this time.  
  
“Oh Lena, not only do I believe in you, I… Come over here.” Lena crawled the short distance into Kara’s arms and snuggled in close. “It’s you and me against the world okay? Just you and me.”  
  
Lena tugged the red blanket which she surely knew was Supergirl’s cape up around them, she rested her head on Kara’s chest and closed her eyes, “My hero,” she sighed.  
  
Lena smiled when her forehead was pressed with a kiss and they both drifted into safe dreams, and didn’t wake until soft morning light drifted in through the windows.


	2. Dreams of Flying and Butterfly Clutter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They wake up and make breakfast together, though that might be an understatement.

Kara woke up first, she could see the dust motes swirling in the air, illuminated by the mid-morning sun, and she could hear the busy morning routines of the surrounding apartments, but she wasn’t really paying attention. 

She was more captivated by the way Lena’s breathing sounded; the way she felt in her arms and resting between her hips; the way her hair felt when she brushed it out of her face. There was no one else she’d rather be holding. 

Lena’s pupils danced, darting from side to side and rolling under her eyelids, and Kara wondered what she was dreaming about, she hoped it was nice. She tried to move as little as possible as she adjusted the blanket out from where it had bunched in the small of her back, and tugged it back up around Lena’s shoulders.

The sun crept higher into the sky and the busy morning-sounds became busy day-sounds, with cars passing and honking in the distance and people talking as they walked their dogs on the street below. Lena’s eyes fluttered open, and she smiled and pulled Kara closer when she realized where she was. 

“Good morning sleepyhead,” Kara said as she brushed the same strand of hair out of her face. Lena mumbled back a minor complaint about having to wake up, but smiled and looked up at her. “Do you remember what you were dreaming about? It looked pretty intense.”

“I do actually, I was flying,” Lena’s eyes gleamed and she propped herself up with both hands on either side of Kara’s head, “and for once it was nice, I mean I have the flying dream a lot, but usually the sky is dark and I’m trying to get away from something. This time the sky was bright and everything was so beautiful and-” Lena made a face at Kara when she noticed that she was smiling at her.

“No, don’t stop, I want to hear all about it!” Lena laughed at herself and shook her head, she was still half-asleep.

Kara slightly tilted her head to the side, and Lena caved. “Fine,” she bobbed her head a little, “well, me and you were having a picnic, with the red and white table-cloth and the basket and there was a lake and then everything started floating. At first it was just our glasses and the basket, but then the corners of the table-cloth started lifting and we couldn’t keep it down and then we started floating too. We got so high up that birds were flying past-” 

The doorknob twisted and the dead-bolt clicked as the door strained against it, the sound echoed in the near-quiet. Lena’s breath got caught in the back of her throat and she scrambled for the taser in her purse with shaky hands. She shot up, standing with her arm back to protect Kara as the knob jiggled again, Kara grabbed her hand and was quick to stand by her side, ready for whatever was coming through.

“They’ve found me,” Lena whispered, the sound barely escaped her lips, even though she looked calm. The door started to creak and scrape as it was being pushed open by force. Kara squeezed her hand tighter and then let go so she could step just in front of her. She may not have looked the part in her slacks and loose t-shirt, but it was Supergirl nonetheless, her hands were in fists at her sides and her chin held high. 

The knob fell through the door and clattered to the floor. There was a pause, then the pressure shifted to the center and it started to crack and split down the middle. Finally, it gave out and half the door followed the doorknob and shook the ground on impact, the other half swung on its hinges. 

“Oh Kara, there you are, good morning! I think your door was locked.” He remarked lightly as he let himself in.

“What the f – frilly hell Mon-el?” Kara’s voice had gone up an octave by the end of her sentence. Lena kept her taser up and ready, not sure what was happening. Kara froze, she would have been less upset had it actually have been assassins. Those, she could deal with. 

“I thought we could watch some movies.” he held up a couple Quentin Tarantino movies with American Psycho and Clockwork Orange mixed into the stack. “These are some of my favourites so far.” He flashed her a toothy smile, then noticed Lena, then he noticed her weapon and his face dropped a little, “Oh, um, was that wrong? I’ve come in before, so I didn’t think you’d mind.”

Kara was at a loss for words, how in the world could someone not know that when a door is locked, that you don’t just walk through it anyways. “Oh, and I got your mail for you too, since you always forget, funny how you can have all this free time now and still forget things like the mail.”

No one made a move or said anything, so he did both. He closed the distance between him and her fridge and grabbed himself an apple, “Are you still upset about the door? Because it’s just a door you know, and in all the movies I watch, doors aren’t normally something to be upset about. Or is this still about losing your job? Because you’re free now, and you have more time to watch movies with me now and eat those thingies you like so much.”

Lena stepped forward in socked feet and did not drop her taser, “Who are you, exactly?”

“I’m Mon-el, Kara’s boyfriend.” He beamed and took another bite of the apple while leaning on her counter. 

“And you think that gives you the right to treat her like this? I’ve only seen a few seconds of this, and it’s more than enough to know that you are hurting her.” Lena held her ground, and Kara’s cheeks went red.

Mon-el swallowed and waved the apple in her general direction, “The girls from where I’m from are treated way worse than this, I’m treating her like a princess in comparison.”

“Well then your princesses must be very unhappy and terrified. I suggest you read a book, take a class, talk to a therapist and then go back to your people and teach them some manners.” Lena’s tone was light, but there was a sharp undercurrent and she still had not lowered her taser.

The frozen blonde came back to life then, “You know, she’s right. You do live here now, and this should not be acceptable by any standards. You constantly overstep my boundaries, even when I have spelled them out for you, you lie, you save people only when you think it’ll impress me, and you don’t do anything that isn’t for you or to save your own butt.” Kara had come to stand besides Lena while she talked, she was flustered and let the words tumble out of her like a broken candy dispenser. “And, and I think I’d like you to take her advice and leave.”

“So, does that mean movie marathon tomorrow?”

She felt like a large sock had been jammed down her throat. He didn’t understand, he was so oblivious, she thought for a second that she could help him to see, help him to fix himself. 

“I – I guess so…” Kara’s eyes dropped to the floor and she bit the inside of her cheek.

“Kara?” Lena was surprised to see her give up so easily, she was Supergirl, and this boy had her shaking in her boots. 

Kara huffed a breath and wrestled with the dilemma. She knew Lena was right, she could feel it in her bones and in her fingertips and even through every stand of her hair, but he had told her so many times before that she makes him a better person, that them being together was good for him, that it was helping him.

“I guess he can have another chance,” she said to no one and everyone.

“ _Kara._ How many chances have you given him? You’ve told me about him before, and between the things that you’ve told me and the things that I’ve seen just now… This isn’t what a healthy relationship looks like…”

“Please, are you going to believe her over me? A Luthor over your boyfriend?” He spat the name out like a curse word. “You know what her brother did to your cousin.” Mon-el pressed back.

“And I know how your family owned slaves and how they treat women,” Kara cut him off before he could say anything else about her, “and while I’m never a fan of judging people by their backgrounds, you certainly live up to your legacy, and Lena has done nothing but support me and trust me.” Her voice got quieter, “So I think, I’m going to continue to return that trust.”

“Does that mean you want me to get you some supplies to make some friendship bracelets for each other? Because I can let you do that, but Kara, you are my _girlfriend._ I don’t know what that means here, but where I’m from that title comes with obligations.”

“That means, Mon-el, that I want you to listen to what I have to say for once, the only thing I owe you is your toothbrush back.” She took a deep breath and finally looked him in the eyes, “I don’t think we should be together, in fact, I know that we shouldn’t.” Lena let her taser hand fall to her side and laced her fingers with Kara’s, “I think you should leave.”

“Kara please, I love you, don’t you know that? You know that I’m trying, you know what my family is like, you can’t abandon me like this, Kara please, I’ll be lost without you.” He set the apple down and reached out for her.

“You always do this, you make me angry and explain how I feel, then you make me feel bad and then I can’t breathe or think or speak and it’s not fair. You mess with my head like I’m a wind-up doll.” she put her hand to her temple, “Please, just go. Just go.”

“You don’t know what you’re saying, sure we have problems, but we can work through them. Kara, don’t say those things, I love you, you know that.” He didn’t dare come much closer with Lena gripping her taser at her side.

“You think you love me,” she started tentatively, “but I don’t think you know what love is, you know what control is, and you can’t have that over me anymore. Please go.”

His eyes flashed darker and his posture hardened. “Kara you’re making a big mistake. If you think I’m going to give you up without a fight you’re wrong, I’m not going anywhere Kara.” He was pointing up at her with hands that were almost fists.

Lena pulsed the taser at her side, an audible reminder for him keep his distance, and Kara held Lena’s hand tighter (careful not to crush her bones); sapping the strength she needed from the other woman, “If I have to ask you one more time to leave, I’ll remind you of how much stronger I am than you.” Kara pointed to the gap where the door used to be and waited until he had stormed back across the threshold.

They stood still until she heard the tell-tale squeaky hinge noise of him leaving the building, then Kara took a deep breath and sighed; she wasn’t upset, or worried or tired, she was relieved. A slow smile creeped across her face and then she started to laugh.

“Hey honey, are you okay? I know that was hard, I’m really sorry you had to go through that.” They were still holding hands and Lena reached for her face to make sure that Kara would be looking into her eyes when she answered. 

Kara nodded more solemnly, “I should have done that a long time ago, but I was scared. I tried, to fix things instead of just working up the courage, but it was always so one-sided, like I was trying to finish a puzzle and he was hoarding half the pieces.” She sighed and leaned into her hand, “Truth is, I wasn’t even into him, it all just happened so fast. He used someone else to make me think I was jealous, and then he went for my jugular and guilted me into it.” She took a breath and let out a shaky laugh, “I can’t believe my sister let me go through with all of that.” She brushed the apple that he had left into the garbage bin. “Well,” she started, trying to shake the past twenty minutes off her like dust, “now that that’s over, do you like pancakes?”

Lena nodded enthusiastically, “I love pancakes! Though is it alright if I use your shower quickly? If you’re sure you’re okay, that is?”

“Yes of course, and only if you set us up with some music first,” Kara smiled and walked into her bedroom to grab Lena a towel and some of her clothes, “The speaker’s on the bookshelf!” she shouted back over her shoulder. 

Kara smiled when she heard the opening chords from Black Velvet, she brought back a neat stack with her favourite sweater on top. “You’ve got good taste Luthor.” 

She wasn’t used to hearing her own last name without any venom in it, it sounded sweet, endearing even rolling off Kara’s tongue. She made an over-dramatic bow and accepted the stack. “Hmm, I thought it would be a lot harder to get into your pants.”

“What?”

“Shower’s that way right?” Lena’s face flushed and she hurried toward the open bathroom door.

Kara had barely gathered the ingredients for pancakes when Lena came around the corner again, hair wet and curling and barefoot. Even Supergirl never showers that fast. The sweater she was wearing was normally big on Kara, but it looked giant on her. It hung just above her knees and the sleeves had swallowed her hands; she was a lot shorter without her heels. 

“Oh, you’re swimming in that! Do you want me to get you something else?” She smiled and tugged at one of the sleeves.

Lena had to stop herself from interrupting Kara to tell her she wanted to stay in the sweater, it smelled like her and she really did not want to take it off, “No, no that’s alright, thank you though.”

“As you wish,” She replied while rolling up one of the sweater’s cuffs, they met eyes as she did up the second one, and then Lena’s shuffled music flipped to Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get it On. 

Kara’s nose crinkled as she belly-laughed at Lena who had gone beet red and scrambled over to change the song. She let out a nervous laugh and ran her hand through her wet hair with some Red Hot Chili Peppers safely playing. 

They worked side by side at the counter, cracking eggs and measuring milk and pouring sugar. Kara bumped Lena with her hips and made her spill some flour, which she promptly rubbed on Kara’s nose. They danced to Michael Jackson and both attempted the moon walk with the bowl of batter and a spatula in hand, singing loudly to Black or White. They took turns trying to make shapes in the pan with the batter. Most of them turned out like bad circles, but Lena was able to pull of an impressive dinosaur and Kara made a couple good circles. 

The blonde’s ponytail bobbed as she bounced to the music that had gotten progressively louder, she put the milk and eggs back in the fridge and turned around too quickly, she ran right into the brunette and she grabbed her by the hips to steady herself. Lena had her back to the table, and Kara was standing close, hip to hip close. 

They locked eyes and the room seemed to go silent, the music felt like it was playing miles away. Lena reached up to brush the flour off her nose with her thumb and left her hand hooked just under her jaw. Kara blinked slowly and both their hearts skipped a beat; their stomachs churned, cluttered with butterflies.

Lena’s eyes dropped to her lips and their faces were pulled together like magnets.

“KARA! KARA ARE YOU OKAY?” Alex’s voice rang above the music and the world snapped back into full sound. They broke apart. She stepped over the door shards in her leather jacket and her favourite gun clasped in both hands, her stance low. She scanned the room to find the two of them, who had moved only a half-step apart, owl-eyed and frozen. Her eyes narrowed and she pointed the gun in Lena’s direction.

Then she noticed her wet hair and Kara’s sweater, and then she smelled the pancakes and tentatively dropped her gun, a crinkle formed between her eyebrows that matched Kara’s famous one. She had never been more confused. 

She looked back at the door to make sure she hadn’t imagined the wreckage, and then back to them, all three of them acutely aware of how the scene looked. 

Alex holstered her gun and walked over to the speaker to turn it off, then she stood with one hand on her forehead and the other at her hip. “Will someone please tell me what’s going on.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, here is the next chapter! I'll try and post a chapter once a week at least, I have quite a bit planned!  
> Hope you enjoy!  
> \- Samara

**Author's Note:**

> First thing I've ever posted, and I'm a little rusty, but practice makes perfect right? And I love these two idiots more than I'd like to admit, so I thought I'd share some of what keeps me up at night!
> 
> Addendum: Due to very kind feedback and encouragement, this will soon be a multi-chapter fic, with the next bit on the way soon!


End file.
